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Timothy Rutter (Chairman)

BSc (Hons) MBChB FRCSEd MRCOG

Board member

Before becoming our Chairman, Mr Rutter practised as an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the highest level for over 25 years.

He brings expertise in programme design and management, and has worked as our Senior Gynaecological Consultant responsible for project development of clinic-based programmes in developing countries. He served as the de facto medical director of Marie Stopes International until the Board formally created the post of Medical Director in 1988.

Mr Rutter has in-depth knowledge of the international context, having occupied senior medical positions with the Government of Thailand, the Canadian Government and Christian Aid, and consulted for the UK’s Department for International Development. In 1973 he founded and then directed a Trans-European Birth Control Programme which campaigned and provided services for women to have greater control of their own fertility.

During his professional career Mr Rutter has undertaken post-graduate specialisations in Gynaecology & Obstetrics at St George’s Hospital Medical School, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the United Kingdom. He has held lectureships at leading research institutions, notably Universidad de Cadiz and Universidad Autonamia de Barcelona, and was deeply involved at a ministerial level in the formulation of Spain’s ground-breaking liberalisation of its abortion law in 1985.